The Church of England says it's working on drafting new pastoral guidance and other material needed to allow same-sex couples to receive blessings from priests. The guidance will then be presented to General Synod in November.

Details regarding the final wording of the prayers and blessings, together with the pastoral guidance were meant to be clarified during the meeting of the Synod in York this weekend.

The Bishop of London Rt Rev Sarah Mullally chairs the working group drawing up the process, which is known as Living in Love and Faith Next Steps. Speaking after a four hour debate on the issue yesterday she told Premier she welcomed the opportunity to hear the views of Synod members :   

"I think we've heard from a range of people - whether they were comfortable with the motion, whether they think we've gone too far. That actually we need to get it right to enable the prayers to be implemented and to reassure clergy whether they are for the prayers or not for the prayers.

"It's really helpful to be able to enter into a dialogue with Synod members and to be able to outline that we'll be coming back in November.

"We'll come back with the implementation proposals and that's absolutely clear for November. There are some things that have come up through Living in Love and Faith and some further pastoral guidance, but this is about the prayers for love and faith, the pastoral guidance that relates to that and any other pastoral guidance that is required. So that's what we'll come back with." 

The Synod received 226 responses about the proposals - 60 said the prayers were too much like marriage while 44 said the proposals should go further. 

The Synod voted in February in favour of blessings for same-sex couples, but the issue has caused division among traditional and liberal Anglicans.